Black Men Dropping Out

As a scientist, I tend to approach even mainstream articles and politics with a critical view, and found a lot of bone to pick with this article by Michael Ross. He correctly worries about the increasing drop-out of black men from the labor force, but then goes on to list the usual suspects for reasons why - discrimination, high incidence of prison stay, etc. All of which might well be true - I'm no expert on the social problems of the black community - but doesn't explain why black women are improving their lot. Being in a university, I'm struck by how so few American black men (i.e. non-immigrants) are present in research settings compared to their female counterparts. I remember Newsweek also did a story where there's some social turmoil associated with a widening gap between the educational expectations of male and female.

There may be a good socialogical explanation for this, one I'd like to hear. Instead, we get "experts" in the media who'd rather rehash the same old cliches!